SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 4, 2014

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• New Video Shows Microsoft “Assistant” Cortana In Action
  Microsoft will be introducing its Siri and Google Now/Voice competitor Cortana with Windows 8.1 in April. The new “intelligent assistant” will eventually be available cross-platform, although launching on Lumia Phones. The name Cortana comes from a character in the game Halo. It was originally thought that Cortana would look like her character in the game […]
• Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West Begins Next Week – Register Now!
  SMX West takes place next week, March 11-13 in San Jose, CA. Learn actionable new tactics, discover solutions to your campaign challenges and make invaluable connections. Check out the agenda, featuring 50+ tactic-rich sessions, inspiring keynotes, and more. All Access, Digital Marketing Summit, Workshop and free Expo+ passes available – Register now!
• Bing Saves, Search Bookmarking Feature, Now Public Beta
  A month ago, Microsoft started testing a new search feature named Bing Saves. This feature enabled searchers to save URLs and searches to their personal Bing/Microsoft account, in order to build an index of their own saved searches. That feature seems to now be available as public beta for anyone who wants to try it. […]
• Creating Content For Your Users That Will Also Get You Links
  When you’re crafting content, you obviously want to create something that your users want to see; but, that’s not always as easy as it sounds. How can you tell what they want? How do you know what they need? Perhaps just as important is this question: how can you craft something that appeals specifically to […]
• Live @ SMX West: Small Company, Big Results
  Small businesses have always faced unique challenges when it comes to online success. That’s even truer today, when the marketing landscape often seems to be friendlier to big brands. But creative small enterprises use agility to create opportunities leveraging search marketing, social media, email marketing and other disciplines. At the Small Company, Big Results session […]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Microsoft Board Chair: Company Culture Must Change
• Why Spending Big On Extraordinary Content Marketing Is A Good Bet
• Thismoment Launches Content Cloud For Brands To Mix UGC & Brand Content Into Syndicated ‘Playlists’
• Digital Marketing Disaster? Hope You Have An Emergency Plan!
• Everything You Need To Know About Gmail’s Auto-Unsubscribe

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• Google’s Matt Cutts Videos & Fes In Morocco, Search Engine Roundtable

Local & Maps

• Google Carousel – What’s Really At Stake, PerformanceIN
• Google Category Errors For Google Places Bulk Upload Listings, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• Building Relationships (and Links) from Natural Content, Search Engine Watch
• Cheapoair hit by Penguin Twice – a 2nd Deep Dive, LinkResearchTools
• Google’s Matt Cutts Gives Specific Answers To Why Site Has Unnatural Links, Search Engine Roundtable
• Is Poor Backlink Strategy Damaging Your Brand?, Affiliate Marketing Blog
• Set Majestic Up Your way, Majestic SEO Blog

Searching

• Chinese search engine with links to state press goes online, PC World

SEO

• 13 Reasons why you should be using Bing Webmaster Tools, White.net
• 19 technical SEO considerations you should look at today, Econsultancy
• Has Google Development Made Re-Creation and Re-Branding A More Predominant Process?, David Naylor
• How to Avoid Unscrupulous Web Design and SEO Service Providers, internetmarketingninjas.com
• How to Write Brilliant Headlines for SEO, Social & Your Readers, SEO Copywriting
• Onsite SEO for ecommerce, gpmd.co.uk
• With Google Penalties: When Should You Kill Your Site & Start Fresh?, Search Engine Roundtable

SEM / Paid Search

• AdWords: Understanding Flexible Conversion Tracking, Practical E-Commerce
• Is The Google AdWords Inteface Too Complicated?, Clix Marketing PPC Blog
• Pay Per Click Lead Quality Management, PPC Chat Streamcap
• The Beginner’s Guide to Building a Negative Keyword List, WordStream

Search Marketing

• Paid and Organic Search as an Integrated Part of a Marketer’s Search Strategy, Covario

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.